A couple weeks ago, someone on the main road trimmed their bamboo. I sat my children down on their lawn, gave them each a pole to 'fish' with, took off all the side branches with my hand clippers, loaded it all into the passenger side window of my Honda-Civic-plus-two-carseats, and drove it over to the garden a friend is generously sharing with us.
This week, someone else in town cut down a huge pile of huge (HUGE) bamboo stems, each about twenty feet long. One of my new gardening pals and I, over the course of two days, with two small children in tow, sat by the side of the road with our clipper collection, whacked off all the side branches, chopped it into manageable lengths, and loaded it into her truck. Now we have all the bamboo for poles and stakes and trellises and a tipi in her backyard. For free!
(Two people of our acquaintance drove by yesterday while we were doing this and texted my friend, "What ARE you DOING?" Oh, small towns.)
Also, last week, the local grocery store was giving away all the rest of their seeds. For free! And I told some friends and we all got free seeds! (They're remodeling and apparently couldn't be bothered to care.)
You know, you really know how to party. All the bamboo!! I keep eyeing that house on the corner of Whitney Way, by your old house. Their yard is full of bamboo but I've never seen them cut it. I imagine the old canes need cutting this year, with the brutal winter. They will not be large though, it's just too cold here.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to content myself with my cattle panel trellises.
It's one big party down here.
DeleteI never saw those people cut their bamboo... but there is SO MUCH bamboo here. I'm sure it would totally be cost-effective to transport it all the way up there, right?
SCORE!!
ReplyDeleteWoo HOOOO! First, mad props on being able to do anything with two toddlers. I took both mine to the grocery store a couple of weeks ago and it was a disaster. I don't understand how people do it.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I will be planting beans this weekend with SAD, STORE BOUGHT BAMBOO. And we will have NO TIPI.
Third, I'm happy that you have a couple of gardening friends. They may be like Mom friends (fine for gardening, but not true love), but that's got to be a coup in Small Town.
Mine are older than yours, that's how. A five-year-old can actually help more than he hinders! I'm not sure about four; I think it was a break-even.
DeleteMaybe one of these years, you too can build a little, ridiculous tipi for your dear children. Maybe when they're old enough to really help as opposed to 'help'!
They might be more than Gardening Friends - time will tell. But you know, I really like gardening with them, too.
grocery store with two toddlers, my approach:
Deleteonly shop at places with double carts
either you stay close to mommy/dont touch the stuff unless I ask for or you go into the cart
after grocery store is the drive through where you get a small treat (which you get reminded of but dont really use as a threat).
:)
ReplyDelete